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The Commissioners said this wasn’t an issue about drone technology but about land use at the Walmart location.
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Walmart’s proposal to bring drone deliveries to East Cobb is grounded. The Cobb County Board of Commissioners unanimously denied Walmart’s rezoning application to install an 18-station drone delivery area in the parking lot of its Johnson Ferry Road store.
More than 1,200 people signed a petition against the rezoning, and 51 people stood up against it in person at Tuesday’s meeting.
Neighbors shared concerns about noise and privacy when drones fly over several nearby neighborhoods.
“If approved, our lives will change forever,” said Jackie Ellis who presented to the board as a neighbor against the rezoning. “We’re not just talking about a delivery service. We’re talking about a drone highway 150 feet above our heads.”
In its application, Walmart representatives say the service would help meet demands of a growing and changing community. A representative for Wing Aviation, which partners with Walmart on the service, addressed some of neighbors’ concerns during their presentation.
“There’s no audio and no live feed of images to anyone, including our pilots, when the drones are in residential neighborhoods,” said Catherine Lovett Wing Aviaiton Local Policy and Community Affairs Manager. “Our focus again as a company is on package delivery, not photography nor surveillance.”
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Ultimately, commissioners said this wasn’t a drone issue, but a land issue.
“It’s not about regulation of drones, it’s purely about location of where is it appropriate for a takeoff pad basically for this,” said Commissioner Erick Allen. “So I would even encourage the applicant to maybe even consider a location that is appropriate.”
County staff advised the board the problem is not the drone that’s in a caged area in the parking lot, but the caged area itself being in the parking lot.
“That gets to a point of what type of storage do we permit, and that’s what this to me is more akin to,” said Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
Cupid said this does not mean the board would deny future applications from businesses to use drone delivery.
Walmart launched its first drone delivery service in metro Atlanta at the end of last year in Woodstock.
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